RE: ANTOINE IS A SCUMBAG!!!

[Jeremy <jwarren@eecs.tufts.edu>]

On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, Noah P. Evans wrote:

> Exactly, it's a "good" business tactic on Falk's part. And he(Falk) is
> telling the truth saying that he won't let Antoine re-sign with the Celtics
> next year. Falk will want to make an example of Celtics to show that other
> teams not to mess with him next time so other teams won't try to strongarm
> him at the bargaining table(like Gaston is now).

	If this is the case then the Celtics should definitely not give in
to Falk.  If they let Falk bully them now, he'll do the same when it's
Mercer's turn to resign.   Let's see how things work out in Minnesota with
the Garnett/Marbury/Gugliotta situation.  And it may seem like a good
business tactic to you, but it could backfire if it causes Antoine's value
to drop due to character problems.  Our only hope is that the owners push
for a right of first refusal option on these third year free agents.  That
would take away all of Falk's leverage.

> Then everyone in the business world is a "spoiled brat". What you're
> watching here is something resembling a "free" market. I know plenty of
> people, who, after demonstrating skill and competance in some technological
> field or another, force their company to fork over a large amount of money.
> If their company doesn't pay, they just go somewhere else for even more.
> This sort of supply and demand is a fact of life in America these days.
	
	Not quite.  First of all I doubt that you know anyone who actually
works outside of a university.  But even so, it would be comparable to
someone demanding that his company pay him an outrageous amount of money.
When the company refuses he takes his chances in the free market possibly
having to settle for a lot less than he demanded because he burned his
bridges with the original company.

> 	Your ice cream analogy doesn't work either.  It's more like Walker's saying
> that if he doesn't get his "ice cream" from his "parent" he'll just get new
> "parents" in Chicago who will give him all the "ice cream" he wants.
> Analogies aside, Pitino *cannot* let Walker leave without getting anything
> in return. Pitino is dead serious when he states that if Walker doesn't sign
> over the summer he will be traded. In the era of free agency no team wants
> to end up with nothing(i.e. Orlando).

	The scary part is that everyone in the league knows this.  No one
is going to give us fair value for Antoine at this point.  And if he's
ready to leave the Celtics for not resigning him early, he is also ready
to leave any other team that we trade him to.  The only way someone will
give us anything reasonable (but still not quite fair) for Antoine is if
they already have a contract extension worked out with Falk before the
trade.  

	It seems like a somewhat pointless argument to have until the new
CBA is determined.  At that point we'll have a much better idea of what
options the Celtics have and who has the most leverage.  I'm going to wait
until the lockout is over before posting again on this subject.

Jeremy